2016

2016

The February 13th Upward Bound Quarterly Meeting was held in the CSC Student Center Ballroom. Approximately 25 stu-dents from Chadron, Crawford and Alliance High Schools attended along with Academic Advisors Heather Barry, Tearza Mashburn, Brad Gaston and UB Director Maggie Smith-Bruehlman.

After a get-to-know-you ice breaker, Heather Crofutt, a CSC Academic Advisor in the Start Office, gave an excellent Power Point presentation on Financial Aid. Heather covered all aspects of Financial Aid that included FAFSA , grants, loans and various scholarships. The UB stu-dents were actively involved by asking good ques-

tions and taking notes. We appreciate Heather understanding the needs of the Upward Bound students and volunteering her time on a Saturday.

Following a Baked Potato Bar lunch buffet, everyone headed over to Bomgaar’s for community service by helping Friends of Pets on adoption day. Students helped set up crates, walked and played with the dogs, and also cuddled the cats and kittens available that day. Heather Crofutt was there as she fosters Nala, one of the dogs up for adoption through Friends of Pets.

The first adoption was for Ratchett, a one and one half year old Chinese Crested mix with a great temperament and adorable face. The elderly gentleman who adopted Ratchett had just put to sleep his beloved Jack Russell terrier two days earlier. With great emotion, he bonded with Ratchett and explained that his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, kept asking about their Jack Russell. He knew she

needed another dog to love and believed that Ratchett was the perfect pet for him and his wife. Later in the day, the gentleman along with Ratchett returned to Bomgaar’s to buy dog treats and toys. He told Claire Shogrin, Friends of Pets volunteer, that when he introduced Ratchett to his wife, she gave a big smile, something she has not done for a very long time.

Kid Shaleen, a Blue Heeler and Elly Mae, a Shih-Tzu, were adopted the following day.

Overall, it was a great day for the Friends of Pets animals who were adopted, and the Up-ward Bound students who

helped out by giving back to an important organization. Not only did they have fun walking the dogs, they also experienced the necessity of rescue animals in need of forever homes.

The next quarterly meeting will be April

23rd for the CSC Big Event.

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CHADRON STATE COLLEGE

Brad Gaston-Crawford H.S.:

Crawford beat Hy-annis to go to the District final in boys basketball. Tuesday March 1st the boys play Garden County to go to the State Basket-ball Tournament in Lin-coln. The boys have not gone to state since 1998. Good luck .

Alyssa Parkins and Ema Ackerman received 2 excellent ratings at Pan-handle Conf. speech meet. They will be per-forming at Districts in Potter Dix on March 16th. Great job girls in Oral Interpretation of Drama!

Joclyn Staman made the Quiz Bowl team and will be in competition on Friday March 18th.

Sklyer Smyres has been selected to partici-pate in Scholastic Day at Chadron State College on April 1st.

Congratulations Skyler!

The Sweethearts Dance was this last weekend. From what I heard every-one had a great time. Ema and Skyler were attend-ants for their respective classes. Nice job girls!

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Heather Barry-Chadron H.S.:

Students at Chadron High have been busy competing in many events – speech, FFA, and basketball just to name a few. The Chadron FFA chapter competed in Gordon on Feb-ruary 3rd, where a group of four young men were crowned District Team Champions in the Ag Mechanics Event. The FFA students also hosted fun activities February 22nd-26th in honor of National FFA week. Some of these activities included: Hillbilly Golf, Ear Tag Search, and fun facts about our national agriculture.

The Lady Cardinal basketball team clinched a wild card for the op-portunity to appear in the class C-1 Girls State Basketball Tournament in Lincoln. Good luck girls!

CHS students participated in an Anti-Bullying week this last month where encouraging notes to students were placed around the school. Stu-dents also decorated the sidewalks at the school with chalk and uplifting quotes. The week ended with a moti-vational speaker, Devin Hughes, who talked to students about spreading happiness and ending bullying.

Meanwhile, students are pre-paring for the spring musical – “Fiddler on the Roof”. For those of you unfamiliar with this story, the set-ting is Imperial Russia in 1905. The story centers on Teyve, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cul-tural traditions as outside influences encroach upon the family’s lives. This musical held the record for the longest running Broadway show for 10 years, until “Grease” surpassed it. Please come support our students in this production on April 15-17th.

Tearza Mashburn-Alliance H.S.:

Time just keeps flying by us! We have ended the 3rd quarter and are heading towards spring. It will be so nice to see flowers springing up, grass greening, and students talking of their summer plans. Every new season brings new events to look forward to and here at Alliance High we have plenty. Track, golf and tennis will be starting this month for many of our students. We wish them the best of luck and look forward to seeing them grow in their skills.

Boys State Basketball is March 10, 11 & 12. We wish our boys the best of luck at District and hope to see them at State.

Easter Break will be March 25 -28th. A perfect time to go visit a college you are interested in Un-derclassmen.

KCOW Home Show March 19 & 20f in the High School Gym. This is a great opportunity to see every-thing our community has to offer. You can also find information on organizations you can join to help our community and build your re-sume with.

SENIORS – DON’T FORGET TO COMPLETE YOUR FAF-SA FORMS! With all the ex-citement of prom and graduation coming up, it can be easy to forget about this. These forms wills help you reach your end goal of going to college, so GET THEM DONE!!

Academic Advisor Update

8 Tips for Crafting Your Best Essay The college essay matters Your essay reveals something important about you that your grades and test scores can't—your personality. It can give admission offic-ers (and Dr. Lee Miller, CSC Composition professor) a sense of who you are, as well as showcasing your writing skills. Try these tips to craft your essay.

1. Get started by brainstorming Starting the essay can be the hardest part. Brainstorming about your per-sonality traits and defining your strengths is a good place to begin.

2. Let your first draft flow After you've gathered your notes, create an outline to organize your essay and decide where you want examples to appear. Now you're ready to write your first draft. Don't worry about making it perfect. Just get your ideas

flowing and your thoughts down on paper. You'll fix mistakes and improve the writing in later drafts.

3. Develop three essay parts Introduction: One paragraph that introduces your essay. Body: Several paragraphs explaining the main idea with examples. Conclusion: One paragraph that summarizes and ends the essay.

4. Be specific Give your essay focus by figuring out how the question relates to your personal qualities and then taking a specific angle. Make sure everything you write supports that viewpoint.

5. Find a creative angle Katherine, a college freshman, had to describe why she would make a good UNL College student for that school's essay. "I am a huge fan of author Willa Cather and since she’s from Nebraska I wanted to write about her, she says. "So I related my love for writing and Willa Cather to why I would be a great fit for the University of Nebraska" It worked!

6. Be honest The essay question might ask you about your best quality, an experience that shaped you or the reason you want to attend a certain college. Don't be tempted to write what you think the admission officers want to hear; answer the question hon-estly.

7. Get feedback Show your draft to family, friends, academic advisors, or teachers. Ask if it makes sense and sounds like you. Consider their feedback and make changes, but keep your voice. High school senior Dana warns, "Make sure the essay is in your own voice. If at some point you read over your essay and you hear your mother's voice, something is wrong."

8. Proofread and make corrections Read your essay over carefully to check for typos and spelling and grammar errors. It's best to ask someone who hasn't seen it yet to take a look as well. They're likely to see mistakes you won't catch.

Joclyn Staman —March Student of the Month

TIP OF THE HAT Heather Crofutt for presenting Finan-cial Aid information at the UB February Quarterly Meeting!

Tia Love is attending the Attorney Gen-eral Conference in Lincoln!

Marque Crowe was named Athlete of the Week!

A big thank you to Vada Burri, Tia Love, Tearza Mashburn and Mariah Stewart for donating blood!

Chadron FFA Food Science Team – Dadrianna Serres earned a red r ibbon and True Thorne earned a white ribbon!

Chadron High girls basketball team, including our very own Maui Lakabung and True Thorne, for making it to State!

Alyssa Parkins and Ema Ackerman won the Panhandle speech contest and are going to district!

State Bound for basketball players Marc Espinoza, Lewie Huggett, Dominick Clevenger, and Brady Aschwege!

Skyler Smyres is going to State for History Day!

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Congrats to Joclyn Staman who is our Student of the Month! Joclyn is only a freshman at Crawford High and she is already a rock-star! Joclyn was not only nominated for Upward Bound student of the month, but also student of the month for Crawford High! Way to go Joclyn!

Joclyn also participates in Quiz Bowl, Student Council, Scholastic Day, and plays on the Lady Rams basketball team. On top of all that, Joclyn is rocking a 4.0 gpa this quarter!

"Joclyn is a joy to have in the Upward Bound program. She works very hard in school, out of school, and in all of her activities." - Brad, UB advisor.

" She has grown and matured a great deal this year. I could not be more proud of the young lady she has become." - Joclyn's mom.

3/5—Heather Barry

3/12—Mango Edwin

3/13—Megan Watak

3/29—Kristyna Parkins

3/29—Natalee Parkins

February Sakai Star: